By Rory Archer
An image of many of the guinea pigs at Lidtke Small Animal Foundation, taken from @lsafguineapigs on Instagram.
TUCSON, ARIZ. — In the early morning of Sept. 23rd, two teenage girls were recorded smiling and covering a camera on the Lidtke Small Animal Foundation (LSAF) property in Marana. When employees came in for their shift later that morning, they found that 25 of their 26 guinea pigs were missing, and racial slurs were written on their whiteboards.
By the following Saturday, 24 of the 25 guinea pigs were recovered safely, one of the guinea pigs having passed away in the meantime.
One of the teen’s mothers, 47-year-old Heather Jenson, was identified as a third suspect in the theft and was known to the sanctuary. LSAF was in the process of relocating its over 100 guinea pigs to a new location in Phoenix when this incident occurred; most of the guinea pigs remaining at the Marana location were considered medically sensitive.
While it may seem like a solved case in the news, some in Tucson’s small animal community have felt that something was amiss about the case—the first concern being the shared history between the LSAF and Lidtke Technologies, a biopharmaceutical and supplement company.
The Instagram account “Justice_for_318,” run by several animal advocates who exposed the San Diego Humane Society-Humane Society of Southern Arizona snake feed scandal in 2023, made a post on September 27, highlighting concerns regarding possible animal experimentation.
The post’s caption reads:
“Lidtke Technologies / Bios Biochemical has stated, ‘We are willing to provide tissue samples for the purpose of research.’ [And] ‘uses a natural fermentation’ to produce their Tryptogold (look into that method and think about the ‘special diet’ they claim they are on and how they are ‘medical pigs’) and their 990 description states ‘To provide a sanctuary for abandoned and health impaired animals, together with research and treatment facilities that utilize kind and caring protocols in the course of saving animals and developing new therapies.’”
The post references a comment left on KVOA reporter Chorus Nylander’s Facebook coverage of the incident. It is believed to have been left by one of the alleged teen thieves.
Heather Jenson’s daughter’s comments on Nylander’s coverage, stating “the sanctuary is NOT who they seem and abust the shi out of them.” Screenshot from Facebook.
Amidst growing concerns about possible animal abuse, a Reddit user on r/Tucson was able to reach out to the rescue.
“Yes, that is an old mission statement,” said current owner of LSAF Ariel Myers, responding to an email.
“We completely understand the confusion the statement may have caused. The statement you saw was created by a previous director, and unfortunately, we were unaware it was published on our donation website. As soon as this was brought to our attention, we updated it to better reflect our current values and mission. We are fully committed to providing a compassionate, safe, and permanent sanctuary for guinea pigs. Their well-being is always our top priority.”
An email correspondence between Reddit user u/Holiday_Record2610 and Lidtke Small Animal Foundation CEO Ariel Myers. Screenshot taken from Reddit.
A member of Justice_for_318 was interviewed and discussed some of their investigative findings, including that the suspect, Heather Jenson, worked for Lidtke Technologies, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In a TikTok news video by Ruby Monroe, a clip of the suspected teen thieves is shown, and they claim that the guinea pigs belonged to Ron Sturtz, the former CEO of LSAF and Lidtke Technologies, and that the guinea pigs and, by extension, the rescue, had been stolen from Sturtz.
Justice_for_318 later corroborated these claims to an extent, explaining what appeared to be corporate infighting at Lidtke Technologies, which may have been the cause of Sturtz stepping away from the rescue. Although they had originally directed their allegations against Sturtz, they retracted their initial statements, directing more concern to the new CEO of LSAF, Myers.
One of their members said that after some research, they didn’t believe animal experimentation to be in the cards, but neglect is an unfortunate and much more likely scenario.
“[LSAF posted] this video to show what poor condition these pigs were found in, but their nails looked like they hadn’t been trimmed in about 3 months–just how long the nails were curving over. So I’m like, well, you can’t put that on [the thieves], you know?” they said.
As stated by Sheriff Chris Nanos in a media release, this case remains an active investigation; public understanding is subject to change.
Myers was given an opportunity to comment for this story, but has not yet provided a response.